Section 1: Reflections 2019 The Year in Review Makungu M. Akinyela As we reach the end of the year 2019 the staff of BAMN thought it would be important to reflect on significant developments and events over the past twelve months and what they mean for the fight for self-determination and freedom for our people. We are excited that our collective has been able to build a consistent rhythm of publication which has brought us to this fourth issue of the journal, and we look forward in the coming year to not only continuing the journal but also to improving on its quality in both contents and reach. We expect to not only continue on this electronic platform but to broaden to print publication as well as regular video and podcasts. Combined, these will allow us to report on the progress of our people’s struggle and to widen the influence of the political and strategic ideas of the struggle for self-determination and political and economic democracy for our nation, including the struggle for autonomy and land in the historic black belt here in the South-East. As we begin this reflection, we want to acknowledge a great loss at the very beginning of 2019 with the death of our comrade and sister Mama Nehanda Abiodun, a founding member of the New Afrikan People’s Organization and an organizer of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement while in exile in Cuba. We continue to honor Mama Nehanda’s legacy and commitment and to remember her comrade Mama Assata Shakur who remains protected in exile in revolutionary Cuba. 400 years of settler-colonial oppression 2019 has been recognized by some as the four hundredth year since the arrival of enslaved Africans in the settler colony of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, though both free and enslaved Africans were in other areas of North America such as Florida for at least 100 years prior. Nevertheless, this 1 remembered date has generated significant discussion and debate including the 1619 Project organized by the New York Times to “reframe” U.S. history so that it is understood that 1619 is the year of the U.S. founding. This decidedly liberal integrationist project is being led by author Nikole Hannah-Jones. Though the project is decidedly pro-American in its concept and approach, it has been met with expected pushback and debate from the white nationalist right which currently has control of the U.S. 2 government at this time. They are led by people like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who said that this project is “brainwashing propaganda and a lie”. This focus on our people’s enslavement has 1
https://timesevents.nytimes.com/1619NYC
2
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/08/19/gingrich_nonsense_for_nyts_1619_project_to_clai m_american_revolution_was_about_protecting_slavery.html